by Jim Anderson
Curling columnist
John Munro won the B.C. high school curling championship just a few short years past, in 1962.
In 2013, he won the Abbotsford masters bonspiel with a slightly older team. I would call that a pretty long and successful career.
Munro with his team of Bob Wedel, Bert Creasy and Vern Friesen defeated the Craig Nixon team of Langley in the final held at the Abbotsford Curling Club on Nov. 10. Twenty-four teams, including 12 from the host club, were vying for the title and Munro, skipping his club team, overcame heavy odds to emerge victorious.
John, who has reached the esteemed age of 70 years, is living proof that curling is a game for life. He actually started playing at about eight years of age in Salmon Arm as he followed his dad down to the local rink, and according to my questionable mathematics that’s 62 years of curling. He continues the family tradition by encouraging his children and now his grandchildren to engage in this Canadian institution.
When asked how he would compare his B.C. high school championship rink with his masters team, he accurately stated that it was hard to compare them. I note, however, that although the two teams are dissimilar in age, flexibility, good looks and muscular strength, all the players were indeed bipeds. That is at least something.
The Abbotsford Masters Curling Club presently has over 100 participants aged 60 to 91. (I would point out that last age is only one digit short of 911). League curling takes place weekday mornings, and most weekends there are bonspiels in clubs all over the Lower Mainland. Non-curlers and novices are welcome to come out and give it a go at no charge for your first game. Call the club at 604-859-9244 or Bert at 604-856-0100.
Good curling!